New data shows patients in Brockville’s emergency room have shorter wait times, on average, than other hospitals throughout the province despite an increase in patient volume.

According to a new round of data released by Health Quality Ontario, patients at the Brockville General Hospital (BGH) emergency department wait, on average, 1.4 hours to see a doctor, slightly lower than the provincial average wait time of 1.6 hours.

The length of stay (including time spent after first being seen by the doctor) for all patients who walk into the BGH emergency room – both high- and low-urgency cases – was, on average, 5.8 hours, with 82 per cent of patients admitted within the target time of eight hours. The provincial average for patients using the emergency for all levels of urgency was 15.6 hours.

Nick Vlacholias, president and chief executive officer at BGH, gave kudos to the emergency department staff for moving patients through as quickly as possible.

“I can safely say that our emergency department wait times have improved since last year, and we’re actually seeing an increase in volume at the same time,” he said.

“The 1.4 (hours) wait time is a really good wait time, however we always want to strive to do better.”

The length of one’s visit, however, is dependent on the urgency of one’s situation. The length of stay in emergency room for low-urgency patients not admitted to the hospital is, on average, 2.3 hours, with 85 per cent of patients finishing their visit within the target time of four hours.

For high-urgency situations where patients are not admitted to the hospital, on average they spent 3.2 hours in the emergency room, with 97 per cent of patients finishing their visit within a target time of eight hours.

Regionally, emergency room wait times varied. At Winchester District Memorial Hospital, emergency room patients waited an average of 2.2 hours; both Kingston General Hospital and the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital have average wait times of 1.4 hours; and Hotel Dieu in Kingston had an average wait time of 1.2 hours.

Wait time information was not available for Kemptville District Hospital.

The data is available on Health Quality Ontario, an online database where Ontarians can see wait times for certain surgeries and compare them at hospitals across the province.

Wait times in Ontario for surgeries and procedures are reported as “how long patients waited from a surgeon or specialist, or central intake office, receiving the referral from the patient’s family doctor, to the patient’s first surgical or specialist appointment.”

The new batch of data also includes information on wait times for certain surgical procedures available locally. The average target time, according to the province, is 182 days for the majority of the surgeries and procedures, and wait times varied for each one.

An area where the hospital particularly excels is with gallbladder and knee replacement surgeries, with 100 per cent of those patients being treated within the target time locally.

For orthopedic surgeries, 63 per cent of patients saw a doctor within the target time, and 100 per cent of patients were treated within the target time of 84 days.

For MRI or CT scans, patients were categorized as either priority three or four. For priority four patients, 50 per cent were scanned within the target time of 28 days, with patients waiting an average of 30 days to be scanned.

For priority three patients, 75 per cent were scanned within the targeted timeline of eight days, with patients being scanned within a target time of 10 days.

This year, however, the hospital is missing the mark with cataract surgeries.

Overall, 74 per cent of patients had an initial visit with a doctor on time, and patients who should be treated within a target time of 182 days waited on average 130 days.

But when it comes to the amount of time from that initial appointment to the actual surgery, targets were missed significantly.

Patients were again categorized into priorities three and four. For all patients, just 50 per cent were treated within target time, and priority 4 patients who should be treated within a target time of 182 days waited, on average, 221 days.

Priority 3 patients were seen much quicker; 90 per cent of patients were treated within target time and those who should be treated within a target time of 84 days waited on average of just 42 days.

Vlacholias said the long wait times for cataract surgery come down to a lack of funding.

“Our wait times are good overall; the one exception is cataract surgery. We need to have additional capacity and funding in order to do more procedures,” he said.

Last year the hospital received an additional $156,000 from the province to fund approximately 350 extra cataract procedures in order to tackle the long wait times. This year, Vlacholias said, they went back to the baseline of 1,300 funded surgical procedures, so that explains why the wait times were so high in this particular area.

“We’re doing the best internally to be as efficient as we can on cataract surgeries, but it comes to a point where we need additional funding for that.”

He said they monitor wait lists and the need for funding with the South East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), and they’re aware of the issue with cataract surgeries and working to correct it.